"I'd love to go out and get the experience," said the junior, who sat out of last Saturday's game against Kansas State after being sidelined the week before against Missouri. "But I'm not going to go out there if I have a chance to injure it more."

KU coach Mark Mangino said Whittemore was still questionable for this weekend's game and that a decision on his availability might not come until warmups on Saturday.

"Sure, we want to win this game, and we're working like heck to do it," Mangino said. "But he means too much to our program to put him in harm's way."

Whittemore, who entered the MU game as KU's leader in scoring and total offense, has been practicing on a limited basis this week. He said his range of motion and strength had improved since last week.

"I went through some stuff in practice and it feels pretty good," he said. "I'm preparing myself as if I'm going to be playing."